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ECU football arrives in DMV for Military Bowl
WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — The East Carolina University football team arrived in Washington Tuesday ahead of the Go Bowling Military Bowl. The Pirates are the defending champions of the Military Bowl after beating NC State in the game last season. This year, they’ll look for the same success against Pittsburgh. “We’ve earned the right […]
ACA Subsidy Expiration Leaves Millions Facing Higher Health Insurance Costs
Orlando Pirates academy product secures fresh PSL move
ExclusiveBucs academy graduate joins new PSL clubPhoto: Orlando Pirates @ XFoot Africa understands that Orlando Pirates academy product Katlego Cwinyane has signed for Betway Premeirship outfit Orbit ...
Against Iran’s politics of exclusion, pluralism is the point
There is a cruel ritual in Iranian opposition politics: some voices abroad constantly interrogate the “purity” of activists inside—why they did not speak more sharply or endorse maximalist slogans, why survival itself looks insufficiently heroic.
The Year in Entertainment 2025: Trends that took over
If you're not careful, you can find out that it's not clocking to you that you haven't been standing on business by knowing all of the cultural trends that happened this year. That's why we're going over the memes, viral moments and trend-setting sensations that dominated the cultural landscape of 2025:
'Palace fight will have delighted Glasner'
Former Crystal Palace forward Glen Murray says Oliver Glasner will be "delighted" with the spirit shown by his side despite their Carabao Cup quarter-final exit on Tuesday evening. The Eagles fought back after Maxence Lacroix's late own goal to equalise deep into stoppage time and force penalties away at Arsenal, before the Gunners eventually progressed by winning the shootout. "When you take into consideration the way they lost the game at the weekend against Leeds, coming away to the Emirates in the quarter-final of a cup competition and digging in in the manner that they did showed character," Murray told BBC Radio 5 Live's Football Daily podcast.
WHO updated recommendations on HIV clinical management: recommendations for a public health approach
This document provides an overview of the updated World Health Organization recommendations for HIV clinical management, which focus on optimizing antiretroviral therapy, preventing vertical transmission, and enhancing tuberculosis prevention among individuals with HIV. These updates are intended to support global initiatives aimed at ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. Key changes include the introduction of new antiretroviral drugs and regimens, revised postnatal prophylaxis and breastfeeding guidelines for managing infants at risk of vertical transmission, and the endorsement of shorter tuberculosis preventive treatments to improve efficacy and adherence. The recommendations are designed to simplify and advance HIV care, promote equity, and contribute to improved health outcomes and quality of life for individuals living with HIV. The updated guidance will be incorporated into the forthcoming revision of the antiretroviral therapy chapter within the Consolidated Guidelines on HIV Prevention, Testing, Treatment, Service Delivery, and Monitoring: Recommendations for a Public Health Approach.
Plant science with a twist
From morning glories spiraling up fence posts to grape vines corkscrewing through arbors, twisted growth is a problem-solving tool found throughout the plant kingdom. Roots “do the twist” all the time, skewing hard right or left to avoid rocks and other debris. Scientists have long known that mutations in certain genes affecting microtubules in plants can cause plants to grow in a twisting manner.
Popstar! Best of 2025: The Fan-Voted Entertainment Rewind That Defined the Year
/PRNewswire/ -- From blockbuster premieres to viral moments, Popstar! Best of 2025 is a fan-voted celebration of the movies, shows, music, and cultural moments...
Latest Epstein files name Trump multiple times
In the more than 10,000 files released Tuesday, Jeffrey Epstein’s brother, Mark Epstein, said the sex trafficker was killed because he was going to name co-conspirators.
The Philip Rivers comeback was wasted time for the Colts
Despite the best efforts of Philip Rivers, his comeback did not help the Colts' playoff aspirations.
The disunity of science is a feature, not a bug
Mathematical models wield miraculous power, but mistaking them for reality has trapped science in a destructive quest for a “Theory of Everything.” Physicist and philosopher Ragner Fjelland argues that this leads to bloated, Frankenstein theories kept alive by clumsy, ad-hoc amendments, which reduce rather than boost science’s power. Fjelland calls for a radical shift in our attitude: we must reorientate towards creating entirely new theories, celebrating rather than lamenting disunity and diversity in science. Science, from the scientific revolution in the seventeenth century to the present day, has more or less developed in a “reductionist” way. The fundamental assumption is that all sciences may be ordered in a hierarchy that can be represented as an upside-down pyramid. At the top we find the human sciences, and at the bottom physics. Strong (or “ontological”) reductionism maintains that all theories at one level can be completely reduced to the lower level, all the way down to theories of atoms and elementary particles, or whatever is “at the bottom.” In the end, all diversity in the world can be unified in one fundamental theory. Hence it is called a final theory, or a Theory of Everything.One of the central figures in developing the idea of a Theory of Everything is the Dutch theoretical physicist Gerard 't Hooft, who received a Nobel Prize in physics in 1999 for his work. He emphasizes the non-empirical status of the theory:There exists no closely resembling alternative theory. This means that any slight change brought about in the rules would make the theory unlikely or inelegant. The theory will be a "package deal": take it, or leave it. This should hold both for the local laws and for the boundary conditions.This endeavor is not new. On the contrary, it goes all the way back to the birth of Western philosophy 2,500 years ago. The Babylonians made regular astronomical observations during a period of 600 years, from 747 BCE until 150 ACE. They developed mathematical techniques to predict astronomical phenomena, but they made no attempts at explaining them. However, the Greeks developed models, both material and theoretical, to explain the observed phenomena.The best example is Plato’s late dialogue Timaeus. Here he introduces a divine craftsman, the Demiurge, who has constructed the universe according to an original plan. Plato seems to have thought that the original plan is what is actually real, while the material world is merely an imperfect realization of it. He therefore does not, in the Timaeus, reconstruct the material universe, but the original plan, which can then be used to explain the material universe.Plato’s aim in producing a theoretical model is to reconstruct the original plan. That is what he carries out in Timaeus—and some modern physicists have embarked on the same project. For example, Einstein’s basic attitude is reflected in the title of Abraham Pais’ biography: “Subtle is the Lord...,” echoing Einstein’s comment, “Subtle is the Lord, but malicious He is not.” In an interview Einstein compared our situation to a child who enters a huge library. The child knows that someone has written the books, but he does not know the languages in which they are written. He suspects that there is a mysterious order, but he does not know what it is.___“We have all been working in what Husserl called the Galilean style; that is, we have all been making abstract mathematical models of the universe to which at least the physicists give a higher degree of reality than they accord the ordinary world of sensation.”Steven Weinberg, Nobel Prize in Physics (1979)___This Platonist view is contrary to a widespread impression of science, symbolized by the picture of the “father” of modern science, Galileo Galilei, with his telescope. According to this impression, Galileo liberated himself from the dominating metaphysics of his day—basically Aristotelian philosophy—and constructed a telescope that he directed towards the sky, showing that Jupiter has four moons. He also performed experiments with bronze balls rolling down inclined planes and found the law of freely falling bodies.However, in other cases Galileo emphasized the unreliability of our senses. It is easy to see why. He defended Copernicus’ heliocentric hypothesis. According to this hypothesis, we are not at rest at the center of the universe, but moving at a tremendous speed through space. Why don’t we observe this motion? Galileo praises Copernicus because “with reason as his guide he resolutely continued to affirm what sensible experience seemed to contradict.” In other places he directly refers to Plato. SUGGESTED VIEWING The quest for a final theory With Michio Kaku Galileo’s Platonism goes back to his early writings. In The Assayer, published as early as 1623, Galileo compared the universe to a grand book that is written in the language of mathematics, and “its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometric figures without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it.” Therefore, things that cannot be described by mathematics—for example, colors, smells and odors—are not real. They are merely subjective.This division into subjective and objective, advocated by Galileo and his younger contemporary René Descartes, is normally associated with a mechanistic world view, which is regarded as the opposite of Platonism. When we reduce something to, for example, molecules and atoms, we move “downwards.” In contrast, the Platonist moves “upwards,” to abstract entities. However, it only shows that when we address fundamental questions, we should be careful in applying everyday spatial metaphors like “up” and “down.”___Nature is complex, and we cannot in general construct mathematical models that adequately describe the world.___The endeavor of finding a Theory of Everything has been heavily criticized. In 2006, the theoretical physicist Lee Smolin published “The Crisis in Fundamental Physics.” He argued that one of the most fundamental principles of science is that we should only regard theories as scientific if we have the possibility to show that they are false by experiments. Although he did not refer to Karl Popper, other critics have referred to Popper and argued that a theory is not scientific if it cannot be falsified (see for example Ellis & Silk 2014).These were not the first physicists to be anti-reductionists. In 1972, the journal Science published an article by the physicist Philip Anderson with the title “More Is Different.” This is the kind of article a scientist would normally write only after he has won a Nobel Prize. However, Anderson won the Nobel Prize for physics five years later, in 1977. The article is amazing, not primarily because it argues in favor of anti-reductionism in general, but because it argues for anti-reductionism within physics itself. Anderson’s conclusion was:At each stage entirely new laws, concepts, and generalizations are necessary, requiring inspiration and creativity to just as great a degree as in the previous one. Psychology is not applied biology, nor is biology applied chemistry.We may say that Plato started the “unity of science movement,” based on Euclidean geometry as the model of all knowledge. A distinguishing mark of geometry is that all possible constructions can be reduced to a few fundamental principles. We have to acknowledge that this approach has limitations. In general, we can easily model technological systems. In addition, we may construct simplified and idealized models that capture important aspects of systems, from various perspectives and for various purposes. But nature is complex, and we cannot in general construct mathematical models that adequately describe the world. In a complex system, each level has its distinct, emergent, properties that are characteristic of this level. Therefore, a complex system should be investigated at different levels and from different perspectives. Instead of exclusively pursuing a scientific ideal based on the unity of science, we should acknowledge the diversity—or even the disunity—of science.
UNC Basketball vs. ECU: Live Discussion
Can the Tar Heels send the Pirates off to sea to wrap up non-conference play?
Columbus Regional Health restricts visitors due to respiratory illness surge
Columbus Regional Healthcare has implemented new visitor restrictions due to increased spread of influenza, RSV and COVID-19.
Pirate group Anna's Archive says it has scraped Spotify in its entirety
An controversial activist hacker group has scraped Spotify's entire library.
enGene Reports Full Year 2025 Financial Results and Provides Business Update
BOSTON & MONTREAL, December 22, 2025--enGene Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: ENGN, "enGene" or the "Company"), a clinical-stage, non-viral genetic medicines company, today announced its financial results for the full year ended October 31, 2025, and provided a business update.
Anna’s Archive claims Spotify scrape to ‘preserve culture’
: Anna’s Archive’s idealism doesn’t quite survive its own blog post
Top Viral Social Media Moments Of 2025, From Louvre Heist To ‘Summer I Turned Pretty’ Memes, ‘Marty Supreme’ Orange & Rachel Zegler’s ‘Evita’
2025 Viral Social Media Moments Film & TV: 'Summer I Turned Pretty', Louvre Heist, Rachel Zegler 'Evita', 'Wicked: For Good', 'Marty Supreme', More
Spotify Confirms Someone Scraped Its Library to Get Up to 300TB of Data
The pirate activist group Anna’s Archive said it gained access to 86 million audio files and it plans to begin releasing them soon.
Future of federal support for Va. minority-, women-owned businesses in transportation in question
Business owners in Virginia, Illinois and Arkansas say the program has offered systemic corrections, created jobs, and built a workforce pipeline, but fear all of it is at risk with the pending federal changes.
Origami On Another Level With 3D Printing
Origami has become known as a miracle technique for designers. Elegant compliant mechanisms can leverage the material properties of a single geometry in ways that are sometimes stronger than those …
Spotify Music Library Leaked Online by Pirate Activist Group
A pirate activist group has reportedly scraped and released all of Spotify’s music. The breach includes 86 million audio files.
Congress Left Without a Health Care Deal. What Comes Next?
Congress is ending 2025 without addressing the coming expiration of ACA subsidies or the price surge expected to follow.
Devils Confirm Major Lineup Returns vs. Sabres
It truly is a Christmas/Holiday miracle. The New Jersey Devils confirm they will have major lineup returns when they host […]
Global warming could trigger the next ice age
Scientists have uncovered a missing feedback in Earth’s carbon cycle that could cause global warming to overshoot into an ice age. As the planet warms, nutrient-rich runoff fuels plankton blooms that bury huge amounts of carbon in the ocean. In low-oxygen conditions, this process can spiral out of control, cooling Earth far beyond its original state. While this won’t save us from modern climate change, it may explain Earth’s most extreme ancient ice ages.
Glittering new James Webb telescope image shows an 'intricate web of chaos' — Space photo of the week
This mash-up of data from the James Webb Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory reveals two galaxies mid-collision, with their spiral arms overlapping and bending toward their neighbors' cores.
Iraq's political future in limbo as factions vie for power
Political factions in Iraq have been maneuvering since the parliamentary election more than a month ago to form alliances that will shape the next government
Hand on Government: Rising health insurance costs and subsidy expiration threaten coverage for 1.5 million Floridians
As 2026 approaches, affordability remains a dominant concern for Americans, with health insurance costs poised to rise sharply, especially in Florida. Government law attorney Chris Hand explained on This Week in Jacksonville that the end of COVID-era subsidies for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) could have severe consequences.
I thought I lost my team the state championship. Then I went viral
Tyler Milioto was at the center of a wild finish in the Louisiana state championship game that went viral.
Embrace a Safe and Joyful Holiday Season
As we enter the holiday season, and we look forward to spending time with our loved ones, many Arizonans will travel to gather with family and friends, strengthen relationships and build memories together. This is also the time of the year when the risk of viral respiratory infections (COVID-19, Influenza, and RSV) is
Like the Iraq War, but Worse
The administration’s justifications for attacking Venezuela feel familiar, but nakedly imperialistic.
Trump to Summon Health-Insurance Firms to Ask for Premium Cuts
President Donald Trump said he would convene insurance companies in the coming weeks in a bid to pressure them to reduce costs for Americans who will see their premiums rise following the expiration of Obamacare subsidies at year’s end.
Strava puts popular “Year in Sport” recap behind an $80 paywall
Strava’s most viral feature is suddenly locked away.
‘We don’t care about politics’: Violence-hit Uvira locals just want peace
As M23 captures and then withdraws from key DRC city, residents say 'whoever comes with peace is welcome here'.
Hubble Glimpses Galactic Gas Making a Getaway
This Hubble image features the nearly edge-on galaxy NGC 4388, located 60 million light-years away and a member of the Virgo galaxy cluster.
Remembering Michele Reiner: Photographer, activist and ‘irate citizen’
Before her tragic death, Michele Reiner built a life based on service, love and devotion to a better world.
Tencent Has Seemingly Lost the "Horizon Clone" Legal Battle to Sony
LIGHT OF MOTIRAM has been removed from Steam and the Epic Games Store.
2 defendants in 'Buffalo Billion' case agree to plea deal to avoid retrial
Documents say Steven Aiello and Joseph Gerardi have pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Video ACA subsidies expiration date looms as health care vote goes to Senate
ABC News' Jay O'Brien reports on the health care measure that now goes to the Senate, where it's unlikely to pass, for a vote in January.
Kristin Cabot breaks her silence after Coldplay kiss cam debacle: 'My kids were afraid that I was going to die'
Kristin Cabot, the former head of HR for Astronomer who got caught with her boss in the viral Coldplay kiss cam moment, speaks out for the first time several months after the event.
Sony and Tencent settle lawsuit over "slavish clone" of Horizon: Zero Dawn
The terms of the settlement have not been disclosed but the case has been dismissed with prejudice
Sony settles with Tencent over 'slavish' Horizon clone
Sony and Tencent have reached a "confidential settlement" over Tencent's Light of Motiram, which Sony called a 'slavish clone' of Horizon Zero Dawn.
NYC’s viral grocery store founder breaks silence: ‘I’m an active target’ — and it’s good for business
From $27 beef salads to $700 caviar, this New York City grocery store became a cultural flashpoint through social media buzz, proving controversy boosts business.
Review of 2025: another fine mess?
John Harris, Pippa Crerar and Kiran Stacey look back at the biggest political moments of 2025, and discuss what 2026 might bring
Dan Bongino plans to step down as FBI deputy director
Deputy FBI director Dan Bongino is stepping down soon from the job after eight months marked by clashes with his boss, Attorney General Pamela Bondi, and fighting off the conspiracies he once fueled.
Meadow Lane CEO on going viral, stirring controversy: It’s ‘very good for business’
The founder and CEO of New York City’s newest gourmet grocer Meadow Lane, Sammy Nussdorf, speaks to Fox News Digital about the intense and highly public opening of his small business.
From Television Host To Media Mogul: How Scott Evans Is Expanding His Entertainment Empire
After years of dominating within the entertainment industry as an in-demand, beloved, and lauded Emmy-nominated television host, he has made shockwaves with his own brand and Webby-award-winning and self-funded show, ‘House Guest’ hosted on YouTube. His success lies in his infectious, warm personality and effortless ability to connect deeply with people, especially celebrities, through his show, ‘House Guest.’ The show filmed at his home with a small but mighty production crew, and curates an intimate environment that fosters authentic, genuine conversations, which typically go viral.
How Oprah made this Las Vegas business a viral sensation
What does it take to run a viral business? This Las Vegas company knows.
Children’s Miracle Network reaches historic fundraising milestone
Children’s Miracle Network (CMN) has reached a historic milestone, surpassing $100 million raised to support lifesaving care at Golisano Children’s Hospital at Penn State Health Milton S.
How the long-running Obamacare fight came to thwart enhanced subsidies in Congress
Congress is poised to leave for a scheduled holiday recess without a solution for addressing the expiration of enhanced subsidies for Affordable Care Act marketplace plans.
Live updates: House, Senate attempt to move ahead on health plans with deadline looming
Congressional lawmakers on Tuesday are scrambling to hammer out plans to address rising insurance premium costs before their holiday recess, as the expiration of Affordable Care Act subsidies looms…
Susie Wiles Acknowledges Trump’s ‘Score Settling’ Behind Prosecutions
In interviews with Vanity Fair, Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, called JD Vance a “conspiracy theorist” and said Pam Bondi “completely whiffed” the early handling of the Epstein files.
Ramanujan’s 100-year-old pi formula is still revealing the Universe
Ramanujan’s elegant formulas for calculating pi, developed more than a century ago, have unexpectedly resurfaced at the heart of modern physics. Researchers at IISc discovered that the same mathematical structures behind these formulas also describe real-world phenomena like turbulence, percolation, and even black holes. What once seemed like pure mathematics now appears deeply intertwined with the physical laws governing the universe.
Two Pirates Earn College Sports Communicators Academic All-District® Honors - East Carolina University Athletics
GREENVILLE, N.C. – Released on Thursday afternoon, the College Sports Communicators have released their Academic All-District® teams for the 2025 Volleyball ...
White House weighs risks of a health care fight as ACA subsidies set to expire
Republicans inside and outside the White House dispute how politically damaging the subsidies’ expiration would be.
🗞️Today's front pages: Florentino on the attack again
The Negreira case and a new attack from Florentino on Barcelona are the most repeated topics in the sports press this Tuesday.When Florentino speaks, the press listens. Following Laporta's comments on...
Erika Kirk and Candace Owens meet amid an escalating feud over Charlie Kirk’s assassination
Erika Kirk, the widow of slain conservative influencer Charlie Kirk, met Monday with podcaster Candace Owens amid an intensifying public feud over Owens’ promotion of conspiracy theories surrounding Kirk’s death.
Speaker Mike Johnson battles with GOP centrists over expiring health care subsidies
Speaker Mike Johnson is facing a possible revolt from a small bloc of GOP centrists this week over the looming expiration of Covid-era Obamacare subsidies — which will spike premiums for tens of millions of Americans in 2026.
Expedition 33's Game Awards sweep fuels online drama and conspiracy theories
No amount of snarky posts or memes can undo the sincerity that helped Clair Obscur sweep in the first place.
Spurs great David Robinson sues business partner, alleges he committed fraud
Robinson, Admiral Capital Group and two other firms accuse Daniel Bassichis of diverting millions of dollars to his investment firm and another business.
John Crace on his book, The Bonfire of the Insanities
Pippa Crerar and Kiran Stacey speak to the Guardian’s sketch writer, John Crace, about his latest book, The Bonfire of the Insanities: How Does This Government Thing Work Again?
Here’s what’s in the House GOP health care bill
House Republicans are set to vote this week on their version of a health care bill as the expiration of the enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies looms ever closer.
Here’s what’s in the House GOP health care bill
House Republicans are set to vote this week on their version of a health care bill as the expiration of the enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies looms ever closer.
How Rob Reiner’s political activism led to Shock and Awe, his film about the US invasion of Iraq
The 2017 drama screened at Dubai International Film Festival
Vikings vs. Cowboys: Dallas falls flat in loss to Minnesota, likely dealing final blow to playoff hopes
The Cowboys aren’t mathematically eliminated from the playoffs at 6-7-1, but it would take a miracle for them to make it.
AI Is Getting Dangerously Good at Political Persuasion
For a while last year, scientists offered a glimmer of hope that artificial intelligence would make a positive contribution to democracy. They showed that chatbots could address conspiracy theories racing across social media, challenging misinformation around beliefs in issues such as chemtrails and the flat Earth with a stream of reasonable facts in conversation. But two new studies suggest a disturbing flipside: The latest AI models are getting even better at persuading people at the expense o
Mom says viral video shows her being booted from Georgia restaurant for breastfeeding her baby
Heated exchange at Georgia restaurant caught on camera as nursing mother says she was confronted by the owner, adding to the venue’s controversial history with families.
Analyst looks back at Pirates’ Bryan Reynolds trade
The Pittsburgh Pirates acquired Bryan Reynolds in a trade with the San Francisco Giants in 2018.
Obamacare expiration will have ‘death spiral’ effect on US healthcare
End of subsidies after failed legislation will have serious and damaging impact on entire sector, policy experts say
N.J.’s public health plan didn’t spiral — it was driven off a cliff
Over the last four years, premiums have increased more than 60%, driving healthy, lower-cost municipalities out, further destabilized the risk pool, triggering additional rate hikes, and accelerating attrition.
Full-length Replay: Big East Men's: Rutgers at Seton Hall
The Scarlet Knights (5-5) battle the Pirates (9-1) in the annual Garden State Hardwood Classic.
‘We are dying’: Cuba sinks into a health crisis amid medicine shortages and misdiagnosis
Hospitals are overwhelmed and fatalities are soaring. The island is suffering from combined viruses that include dengue, chikungunya, Oropouche and other respiratory diseases
'Miracle on Ice' Olympic hockey team honored by President Trump with Congressional Gold Medal
The U.S. team defeated the Soviet Union and Finland en route to the gold medal at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics.
Higher cost, worse coverage: Affordable Care Act enrollees say expiring subsidies will hit them hard
Americans are feeling the strain already with less than three weeks to go until the expiration of COVID-era tax credits that have helped many people pay for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act.
Week in Politics: Redistricting; Trump's economic messaging; Obamacare subsidies
We discuss the week's political news, including the latest developments in congressional redistricting, President Trump's economic messaging, and the expiration of Obamacare subsidies.
PFL Lyon Results: Nemkov vs. Ferreira
Vadim Nemkov, Renan Ferreira clash for PFL heavyweight title
Trump 'willing to put the federal government behind' changes to NIL
President Donald Trump spoke on NIL and college athletics during a bill signing ceremony honoring the "Miracle On Ice" hockey team on Friday.
Jayden Quaintance making great progress: What about Mo Dioubate?
“It was like a Christmas miracle.”
iOS 26.2 adds new Apple Music features and fixes a viral bug
Apple today released iOS 26.2 for iPhone users, and the update brings several key changes for Apple Music. There’s also...
2025 NFL Odds: Back Burrow's Bengals to Win AFC North
Will Hill spells out exactly why — and how — the Bengals could make a miracle end-of-season run and capture the AFC North.
ObamaCare impasse sets stage for January health care battle
Only a holiday miracle can prevent ObamaCare subsidies from expiring on Jan. 1, setting up a major health care fight next month when lawmakers turn their attention to a 2026 spending bill and anoth…
Republicans and Democrats can work together on healthcare, says Trump, as rise in premiums looms
President spoke at Congressional ball after Senate rejected two competing proposals to address imminent expiration of Obamacare subsidies
Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles unleashes profane tirade after team blows 14-point lead in fourth quarter
Nail tech shares negative impact salon chemicals had on her son’s health
Multiple studies have identified correlations between harsh chemicals used in nail salons and health issues including skin, respiratory, cancer and birth defects. NBC News’ Zinhle Essamuah spoke to a nail salon tech about the health repercussions she faces as a result of her job.
'Heated Rivalry' stars talk overnight success, butt tweets, and viral moments
'Heated Rivalry's Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams are still processing those fans tweeting about their butts. The actors get into the spicy drama's runaway success and go behind the scenes of viral moments.
Teens discovered my 57-year-old cheese shop on TikTok — and transformed my business
Dominick DiBartolomeo, who owns the Cheese Store of Beverly Hills, told Business Insider that TikTok virality drew in waves of younger customers.
The New WHO Pandemic Treaty and Global Health Governance: Incorporating Common but Differentiated Responsibilities into PABS - Georgetown Journal of International Affairs
On May 20, 2025, the World Health Assembly unanimously adopted the World Health Organization (WHO) Pandemic Agreement, an international treaty designed to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response. The product of three years of arduous negotiations, the treaty marks a new era of global cooperation in public health. However, core aspects of the agreement remain unresolved—notably the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS) System, which is intended to ensure equitable access to pandemic-related materials and benefits. To support the successful implementation of the WHO Pandemic Agreement, the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities” should be formally incorporated into the negotiating agenda of the PABS annex. Introduction For the first time, an international treaty has enshrined the principle of “One Health,” the compelling idea that the health of animals, humans, and the environment all contribute to pandemic risks. SARS (2003), H1N1 (2009–10), Ebola (2014–16), and COVID-19 all emerged through zoonotic spillover from animal hosts—respectively, civets, hogs, and bats. Together, they underscore the need for a coordinated, cross-sectoral approach. The Pandemic Agreement responds to this call, requiring state parties to acknowledge the ecological interplay and commit to a comprehensive “One Health” strategy. Specifically, Article 5 charges governments to address “the drivers of pandemics and the emergence and re-emergence of infectious disease at the human-animal-environment interface,” including wild animal markets, deforestation, and antibiotic overuse. Yet the effectiveness of this “One Health” vision depends equally on the free flow of scientific information and data among countries and institutions. Just as environmental and animal health factors have been neglected in past global frameworks, so too has data sharing been marginalized, despite its centrality to timely detection and response. The Pandemic Agreement takes an important step by requiring governments to enhance data collection and cooperate with the World Health Organization (WHO). However, these provisions will remain aspirational without a robust Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS) annex. The PABS system will determine whether countries and researchers can rapidly exchange pathogen samples and genetic data while ensuring equitable access to resulting research and development, including diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines. Without such mechanisms, the treaty’s promise to operationalize “One Health” and strengthen global preparedness will risk becoming largely symbolic, echoing earlier failures to translate shared principles into coordinated action. Equity Concerns When the 2025 Health Assembly adopted the Pandemic Agreement, it left the difficult question of access to pathogens and the sharing of resulting benefits to be addressed in a separate agreement. Negotiations on this separate agreement, PABS, are now underway in Geneva. Yet governments remain divided over fundamental questions of equity between the countries that primarily contribute to the system and those that primarily draw from it—and consequently benefit. For example, wildlife in countries bordering the equator is likely to produce PABS materials, but companies in Europe are likely to use them to develop lucrative products. The most likely contributor countries are likely to be those biodiverse countries around the equator, such as Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Indonesia, where the number of human-mammalian viral host interactions is large. Conversely, countries most likely to benefit from this material are those with the technology, investors, and infrastructure to capitalize on genomic data, such as the United States, EU member states, and Japan. This imbalance reflects a broader pattern seen in prior international frameworks. Now, as in the past, the wealthiest countries in the world (a useful heuristic is membership of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)) disproportionately benefit from systems in which pathogens and genomic sequencing data are contributed to a common source. Under the International Agreement on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (the “Plant Treaty” or “Seed Treaty”) and the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness (PIP) Framework, companies from Europe and North America disproportionately withdraw biological samples and data for development into lucrative medical products. Their governments and companies have both statutory and contractual claims to the products that those companies correspondingly produce. PABS appears poised to follow the same pattern. The text calls for strong language on access to pathogens and associated data, but the corresponding benefits that should flow to poorer countries are couched in equivocal or non-binding language. Common but Differentiated Responsibilities To address these inequities, the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities” should be formally incorporated into the negotiating agenda of the PABS annex. Common but differentiated responsibilities are often a feature of climate change negotiations. The basic principle is that, even though all countries should reduce carbon emissions, governments that became rich and powerful through massive carbon emissions (e.g., France, the United Kingdom, the United States) should have a greater obligation to address the resulting crises. Applied to PABS, it would require that governments hosting and supporting companies developing lucrative products carry greater obligations toward the cost of running the PABS system; share benefits or final medical products; and transfer technology to help countries worldwide develop their own capacities to innovate and manufacture vaccines during an emergency. For example, an annex could mandate that any company based in an OECD country that withdraws PABS material would be obligated to donate the resulting diagnostics, therapeutics, or vaccines to the WHO during a public health emergency or pandemic. Questions remain about how robust those donations would be, but the principle is that they should deliver highly significant lifesaving benefits to be equitably shared. Theoretically, this approach mirrors the PIP Framework, in which companies withdrawing influenza samples are required to pay half of the operating costs. In practice, however, the framework has fallen short. The PIP Framework Secretariat has struggled to secure payments from companies, with companies often disagreeing over how much is owed. Additionally, without another pandemic influenza to test the strength of the agreement during a public health emergency, corporate compliance with sharing mechanisms remains unknown. Even if these limitations did not characterize the PIP Framework, partially paying for operating expenses does not address the inequity in access to genetic data and pathogen samples that left less developed countries last in line for COVID-19 vaccines (and, before them, H1N1). Common but differentiated responsibilities would go further, addressing governments’ legitimate grievances regarding information sharing. It would make withdrawals of PABS material and resulting products more transparent, building trust across the board. Enforcement and Enduring Success A key implication of this approach is that the governing mechanism of the PABS must have real enforcement authority. The WHO Pandemic Agreement delegates its core governance responsibilities to a Conference of the Parties (COP)—a governing body composed of one representative from each participating government, similar to those established under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The proposed WHO Pandemic Agreement COP is charged with oversight functions but ultimately possesses no real authority to compel a government to take any action it does not wish to take. The text does not give the COP the ability to, for example, sanction a party that does not comply with either textual obligations or PABS provisions. In other words, there are no effective mechanisms in place to ensure compliance. Perhaps just as significant, establishing a meaningful enforcement mechanism within the PABS system would strengthen the WHO’s credibility and its ability to ensure compliance across global health governance. By setting a precedent for accountability, such a mechanism could enhance the organization’s authority not only within the Pandemic Agreement but also in enforcing the revised International Health Regulations and other frameworks for public health emergencies. Conclusion The PABS annex can—and should—be different. It should establish clear responsibilities for funding as well as for sharing the diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines that result from contributions to the system. The system, in turn, must include a dedicated body empowered to hold governments and the corporations they sponsor accountable for their responsibilities before, during, and after pandemics. Doing so would restore trust in the broader agreement, which was eroded as commitments were repeatedly diluted while parties scrambled to meet their own self-imposed deadlines during the Pandemic Agreement negotiations. A robust PABS Annex would cement a grand social bargain. Wealthier countries and their corporations would gain unimpeded access to scientific information essential for developing and manufacturing lifesaving medical products. As such, they would stand to gain considerable economic benefit. Yet that privilege must be matched with responsibility. The grand bargain must include not only the right to innovate, but also the duty to ensure that innovation serves all. As medical products are developed and produced through collective contributions, every person must have equal access. All human beings deserve an equitable chance to survive—to save their own life, the lives of their families, and the well-being of their communities. … Sam Halabi, JD, MPhil, is the Bette Jacobs Endowed Professor at Georgetown University’s School of Health and the Director of the Center for Transformational Health Law at Georgetown Law. He serves as the co-lead for the WHO’s Working Group on Regulatory Consideration on AI and Health’s training workstream. He earned his JD from Harvard, his MPhil from Oxford, and undergraduate degrees from Kansas State University. Lawrence Gostin, LLD (Hon.), JD, BA, is University Distinguished Professor and Founding Director and Timothy and Linda O’Neill Professor of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law. He is the author of Global Health Security: A Blueprint for the Future (Harvard University Press, 2021); Global Health Law (Harvard University Press, 2014); Public Health Law: Power, Duty, Restraint (University of California Press, 3rd ed., 2016); Public Health Law and Ethics: A Reader (University of California Press, 3rd ed., 2018); Law and the Health System (Foundation Press, 2014); Principles of Mental Health Law & Practice (Oxford University Press, 2010). He also directs the WHO Collaborating Center at Georgetown University. Image Credit: United States Mission Geneva, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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